Graham v. Zavaras

F I L E D
United States Court of Appeals
Tenth Circuit
UNITED STATES COURT OF APPEALS
OCT 17 1997
FOR THE TENTH CIRCUIT
PATRICK FISHER
Clerk
HAROLD GRAHAM,
Petitioner-Appellant,
v.
No. 96-1494
ARISTEDES ZAVARAS, Executive (D.C. No. 95-N-2742)
Director DOC; MARK MCKINNA, (D. Colo.)
Warden CTCF,
Respondents-Appellees.
ORDER AND JUDGMENT *
Before KELLY and HENRY, Circuit Judges, and DOWNES, ** District Judge.
After examining the briefs and appellate record, this panel has determined
unanimously that oral argument would not materially assist the determination of
this appeal. See Fed. R. App. P. 34(a); 10th Cir. R. 34.1.9. The case is therefore
ordered submitted without oral argument.
*
This order and judgment is not binding precedent, except under the
doctrines of law of the case, res judicata, and collateral estoppel. The court
generally disfavors the citation of orders and judgments; nevertheless, an order
and judgment may be cited under the terms and conditions of 10th Cir. R. 36.3.
**
Honorable William F. Downes, District Judge, United States District Court
for the District of Wyoming, sitting by designation.
This matter is before the court on petitioner’s application for a certificate
of appealability, which we construe as an application for a certificate of probable
cause, 1 to appeal from the denial of his habeas corpus petition filed under 28
U.S.C. § 2254. Accepting the recommendation of the magistrate judge, the
district court found that petitioner’s claims were procedurally barred. The court
also declined to consider issues petitioner raised in his objection to the magistrate
judge’s recommendation but had not raised in his petition. We conclude that
petitioner has failed to make a substantial showing of a denial of a federal
constitutional right. We therefore deny his request for a certificate of probable
cause and dismiss the appeal.
1
The Supreme Court recently held that the new provisions of Chapter 153 of
Title 28 of the United States Code, which includes § 2253(c) requiring certificates
of appealability, added by the Antiterrorism and Effective Death Penalty Act of
1996 (AEDPA) are generally not applicable to cases filed before AEDPA’s
effective date, April 24, 1996. See Lindh v. Murphy, 117 S. Ct. 2059, 2068
(1997). Thus, Lennox v. Evans, 87 F.3d 431 (10th Cir. 1996), cert. denied, 117
S. Ct. 746 (1997), has been overruled to the extent that Lennox held that
§ 2253(c) applied to habeas petitions filed prior to AEDPA’s effective date. See
United States v. Kunzman, No. 96-1310, 1997 WL 602507, at *1 n.2 (10th Cir.
Oct. 1, 1997) (en banc). Because the habeas petition in this case was filed prior
to that date, petitioner is not subject to AEDPA, but he is subject to § 2253's
previous requirement that he obtain a certificate of probable cause to appeal.
Regardless of which label applies, petitioner’s substantive burden is the same. As
we held in Lennox, both certificates of probable cause and of appealability
require that a petitioner “make a substantial showing of the denial of a federal
constitutional right.” 87 F.3d at 434.
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Petitioner was originally convicted of aggravated incest and sexual assault
on a child as part of a pattern of abuse. Because of inconsistent testimony by the
victim’s mother in a separate case regarding whether she was married to
petitioner, the trial court granted petitioner’s motion for judgment of acquittal
with respect to his aggravated incest conviction. His sexual assault conviction
was obtained under Colo. Rev. Stat. § 18-3-405(2)(c). 2 Sexual assault on a child
under § 405(1) is a class 4 felony, see § 405(2), but § 405(2)(c) enhances it to a
class 3 felony when the offense is committed as part of a pattern of sexual abuse.
The pattern of sexual abuse that the state alleged against petitioner included
incidents occurring both before and after the effective date of the enhancement
portion of the statute. Because “[t]he jury was not instructed that defendant’s
conviction of the predicate offense had to be based on an act which occurred after
the passage of this portion of the statute,” the Colorado Court of Appeals reversed
the enhancement under § 405(2)(c) on ex post facto grounds but affirmed the
conviction under § 405(1). See People v. Graham, 876 P.2d 68, 72, 73 (Colo. Ct.
App. 1994). Petitioner is serving an eight-year sentence in a Colorado
penitentiary for the sexual assault on a child conviction.
Petitioner has filed a variety of documents both in this court and the district
court raising an assortment of issues in varying levels of clarity and consistency.
2
Section 405(2)(c) has since been recodified as § 405(2)(d).
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Because he is proceeding pro se, we construe these documents liberally. He
raises the following substantive issues on appeal in addition to his contention that
the district court erred in finding his claims procedurally barred: (1) that the state
trial court lacked jurisdiction and venue over the charged offenses; (2) that the
jury was improperly instructed and was tainted because it considered incidents
occurring outside the court’s jurisdiction; (3) that sexual assault and incest are the
same offenses for double jeopardy purposes; (4) that his trial counsel was
ineffective for failing to investigate; (5) that the state interfered with his legal
representation by the public defender by limiting the amount of time counsel had
available for his defense; (6) that the prosecution knowingly used perjured
testimony and that the jury heard perjured testimony; (7) that the trial judge was
biased due to his personal relationship with the prosecutor; and (8) that the
prosecution was guilty of misconduct for presenting evidence of uncharged
conduct and perjured testimony. 3
Where as in this case, the district court refers the matter to the magistrate
judge for a recommendation, a party must present timely and specific objections
to the magistrate judge’s recommendation to preserve issues for appellate review.
3
Petitioner also contends that his appellate counsel was ineffective and that
he was denied his right to self-representation on appeal, but we understand these
contentions to apply only to his claim that other issues should not be considered
procedurally defaulted.
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See United States v. One Parcel of Real Property, 73 F.3d 1057, 1059-60 (10th
Cir.), cert. denied, 117 S. Ct. 271 (1996). Petitioner did file a timely objection to
the magistrate judge’s recommendation, but he did not mention, much less argue
that he did not procedurally default, the third, seventh and eighth issues. We
therefore will not consider those issues on appeal.
Petitioner’s claim that the jury was improperly instructed and was tainted
by improper evidence is actually part of his claim that the trial court did not have
jurisdiction or venue over the offense. Petitioner was tried in Jefferson County,
but some of the alleged incidents of sexual abuse occurred in Park County. Both
counties are in Colorado. Petitioner contends that under the Colorado
Constitution, Jefferson County did not have jurisdiction or venue over the acts
that occurred in Park County. He also contends that the jury was not instructed to
find that the incidents of sexual abuse had to have occurred in Jefferson County.
However, a violation of the Colorado Constitution’s jurisdictional mandates does
not raise a federal constitutional issue for which habeas relief may be obtained.
See Caudill v. Scott, 857 F.2d 344, 345-46 (6th Cir. 1988); Cook v. Morrill, 783
F.2d 593, 595-96 (5th Cir. 1986). Thus, there is no merit to claims one and two.
Petitioner’s claims that his counsel was ineffective (1) for failing to
perform an adequate pretrial investigation, and (2) because of the workload of the
public defender’s office, fail because he has not shown what evidence an
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adequate investigation would have disclosed nor how he has been prejudiced. See
Hatch v. Oklahoma, 58 F.3d 1447, 1457 (10th Cir. 1995), cert. denied, 116 S. Ct.
1881 (1996). His fourth and fifth claims thus fail.
Petitioner contends that the jury was tainted by a witness’s perjury and that
the prosection knowingly used perjured testimony. Mere perjury itself does not
merit habeas relief, but the prosecution’s knowing use perjured testimony may.
See Smith v. Roberts, 115 F.3d 818, 820 n.2 (10th Cir. 1997). The only
indication of possible false or “perjured” testimony admitted at his trial is the
victim’s mother’s testimony that she was petitioner’s common law wife that was
inconsistent with her statement in a separate case. This testimony was relevant
only to the aggravated incest charge, and as noted earlier, he has already obtained
relief on this matter. Moreover, in all of the various documents petitioner has
filed in this court and the district court, he has failed to allege more than his bare
conclusion that the prosecution knew the testimony was perjured. His sixth issue
also fails.
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Petitioner’s request for a certificate of probable cause is DENIED, and the
appeal is DISMISSED. The mandate shall issue forthwith.
Entered for the Court
William F. Downes
District Judge
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